Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the subcommittee on
Privacy, Technology, and the Law, issued a letter to Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick on Tuesday calling for the company to provide
better answers about Uber's customer privacy
policies.

This isn't the first time
Franken has sent Uber such a letter. Franken
first formally contacted Uber (as well as Lyft, in a separate
letter) in November, asking a series of questions about how the
car-hailing companies handle consumer privacy.

“While I'm pleased that I
received a reply, I was — and still am — concerned about the lack
of detail in the response,” Franken
said in his second letter.

Franken is calling for added
clarification of Uber's privacy policies. He wants to know how
many Uber employees have access to Uber's "God View" program — an
internal tool that lets employees track the exact locations of
customers and riders in real time — and why Uber's employees need
access to God View at all.

Back in November, Uber came
under scrutiny when the company's top New York City
executive, Josh Mohrer, was investigated for breaching
Uber's privacy
policy by tracking
a journalist without her permission. He was later
"disciplined," according to the company, and kept his
job. Mohrer
used a tool called "God View" to track BuzzFeed reporter Johana
Bhuiyan's location without asking her for permission, an action
that violates the company's privacy policy.

In September, a venture capitalist named Peter Sims wrote a post
on Medium called "Can
We Trust Uber?"Sims says three years ago, he was taking an
Uber SUV through Manhattan when an acquaintance texted and asked
whether he was in an Uber vehicle at 33th and 5th. He
confirmed that he was, and the acquaintance later revealed she
was at an Uber Chicago launch, and at the party Uber had a screen
showing where certain people in New York were riding around in
Uber vehicles, presumably using the God View tool.

Franken asked in the new letter
whether customers have any control over how their data is shared,
and what business needs the company has to keep customer data
after customers cancel their accounts.

“I remain interested in
understanding what, in your view, constitutes a legitimate
‘business need’ after a cancelled account is fully settled,”
Franken said in the letter.